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President Wilson, in his address before the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress in 1916, agreed in part with this when he said: "The Monroe Doctrine was proclaimed by the United States on her own authority. It has always been maintained, and always will be maintained, upon her own responsibility.'

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Except for a previous book by the same author, now out of print, the material in this present volume is not obtainable in any other single book.

This very instructive volume, as pointed out by the editors, was written primarily for college and university classes in history and political science, but its subject-matter and the method the author has used in handling this material make the book possible of wide use by the general reader.

Two maps, one of South America and the other of the Caribbean, cover the entire geography with which the book is concerned. The book also contains a table of contents and a useful analytical index.

PEDRO CAPÓ-RODRÍGUEZ.

Legal Effects of War. By Arnold D. McNair, C.B.E., M.A., LL.M., Cambridge: University Press. 1920. pp. xiv, 168.

The preface says that "This Volume is composed of a collection of seven essays and lectures upon several aspects of the Effect of War upon the municipal or national law of England," aimed to give "an estimate of the permanent impression made upon the law during the five years of the war." Four of these essays appeared at various times in the Law Quarterly Review for July, 1919, April, 1915, April, 1918, and January, 1919. The several chapters of the book "derive their origin from a course of lectures delivered as the Law Society's Lecturer in Commercial Law." Chapter I is on "British Nationality and Alien Status in Time of War." In this chapter the author discusses nationality and domicile in general, British nationality in particular, revocation of naturalization, voluntary loss of nationality, imperial naturalization, the status of married women and minor children, German law of nationality, the status of aliens, the effect of war upon aliens, the position of alien enemies, and the definition of an alien enemy. Throughout the author refers to pertinent war legislation and points out where this differs from the law as heretofore existing. The author's distinction between nationality, domicile and residence is recommended to students of the subject. The section on British nationality is interesting as showing who are British subjects by birth, by annexation, and by naturalization.

Chapters II and III relate to the "Procedural Capacity of Alien Enemies," that is, their capacity to institute action or to defend against action in the courts of England. A historical sketch of the law on this subject is followed by a discussion of modern cases. The discussion covers alien

enemies in British territory, alien enemies who have left British territory and returned to their own country, alien enemies in Allied or neutral territory, alien enemies so declared by statute, corporations, and the effect of internment.

Chapters IV, V, VI, and VII relate to the "Effect of War on Contracts," and is a clear but brief discussion of the principles involved and the tendency of recent decisions. Chapter IV relates to "General Principles," and the subject is treated in accordance with the following analysis:

A. Contracts between British and Enemy Residents:

(1) in existence at the date of the outbreak of the war,
(a) when a right of action has already then accrued;

(b) when no right of action has then accrued;

(2) attempted to be made during war.

B. Contracts between Allied and Enemy Residents.

C. Contracts between Neutral and Enemy Residents.

D. Contracts between British Residents (or persons resident in British, Allied, or Neutral Territory).

Only special points of interest will be referred to. Whether the Statute of Limitation runs during war in cases of contracts between British and enemy residents, and whether a debt carries interest during the period of war, are not answered by any direct English authority, and the author, therefore, refers to American cases on these points. As to whether contracts are abrogated or suspended by the outbreak of war the author states, "We shall, however, be safer in assuming that discharge is the rule, although we shall find that there are one or two classes of contract where this is not so." (Page 64.)

The kinds of contracts which are not abrogated are contracts of tenancy and contracts for the sale of land. Such contracts are not even treated as suspended. Coming to contracts which are suspended, the author appears to find no satisfactory decisions of the courts, although no doubt certain contracts are merely suspended.

Chapter V deals with "War-Time Impossibility of Performance of Contract." The author first reviews the exceptions to the general rule that where there is a positive contract to do a lawful thing, the contractor must perform it or pay damages, such as the doctrine of "supervening impossibility of performance," or as known in maritime law "frustration of the adventure." This review places the reader in a position to understand the bearing of the recent decisions of the House of Lords in Horlock's case (1916), Tamplin's case (1916), and the Metropolitan Water Board's case (1917). The author finally summarizes these cases and the decisions of inferior courts involving similar points as follows:

(a) Mere commercial impossibility or difficulty in obtaining goods, not specific goods, arising from some unforeseen cause, will not excuse a vendor from performing his contract.

(b) Impossibility which only affects a part of the thing contracted to be done, although an important part, will not discharge the contract, although the impossibility and its cause would otherwise satisfy the required test and have that effect.

(c) Mere increased cost of performance, unless to an enormous and extravagant extent, does not make it impossible. A man is not prevented from performing by economic unprofitableness unless the pecuniary burden is so great as to approximate to physical prevention.

(d) A temporary impossibility which is removed within a reasonable time cannot be used to snap a discharge of the contract. () (Pages 93, 94, 95.)

Finally, the author closes the chapter with the proposal to apply "an acid test."

Two conditions must coëxist before supervening impossibility can excuse performance or further performance: (1) the cause must be such that the court will assume that if it had been mentioned to the parties during their negotiations for the contract, they would both have said, "Oh, of course, if that happened, it would knock the bottom out of our bargain"; (2) the effect of the cause must amount to real (but not necessarily physical) prevention of the performance of the whole or substantially the whole of at least one party's obligation, and must not merely mean that its performance will take place under conditions somewhat different from those contemplated. (Page 97.)

In Chapters VI and VII the author applies the principles worked out in Chapters IV and V to some of the more important kinds of contracts. First, however, he discusses the meaning of "trading with the enemy" under the common law, the maritime law, and the enemy legislation passed during the recent war. The author points out that the Trading with the Enemy Acts of Great Britain aimed broadly (1) to prevent intercourse with the enemy across the line of war and (2) to stamp out enemy influences and operations in Great Britain and elsewhere. The definition of "enemy" was at first territorial rather than personal, though the personal aspect developed later. Passing to the consideration of some particular contracts, he takes up the contracts of Affreightment, Agency, Companies, Property Insurance, Life Insurance, and Sale of Goods. points which strike the reviewer as interesting may be referred to.

It is not always clear to the layman or even to the lawyer whether blockade running and contraband carrying is illegal. The author points out that under British municipal law such trade ventures are not illegal, but the Government recognizes the right of belligerents to check these practices by inflicting the customary penalties. The author refers to certain cases in which contracts involving these practices have been enforced. As to a contract of agency between an agent in one belligerent representing a principal in another belligerent, he regards the outbreak of war as rendering the contract terminated in the same way as by the principal's death or insanity, and rejects the American view (Kershaw v. Kelsey, 100 Mass. 561) that payments may be made to the agent here of a principal in an enemy country and that the agent might remit the money to the enemy. There are some exceptions to this rule, however, in which carrying

out the agency does not require further intercourse between the agent and his principal across the line of war. The author also takes up the definition of a "Branch" of an enemy business.

Under "Companies" the author discusses the enemy character of companies and the shareholders' contract of membership. The author points out that the old view in England was that a corporation takes its character from the country in which and under whose laws it is incorporated without regard to the status of its individual members, and refers to the effort of the courts during the recent war to look back of the corporate entity and to ascertain the enemy character of the persons controlling its affairs. The case of Daimler Company v. Continental Tyre and Rubber Company is the case in which this turning-point in the law is made. The author touches upon the reverse situation, namely, what circumstances will be regarded by the English courts as freeing a company incorporated in enemy territory from enemy character.

Under "Partnership" the author points out that this contract is a typical case of dissolution although the property rights of the partner are preserved. A practical remedy for most of the difficulties was provided in the enemy legislation for state supervision and control of partnerships containing enemy elements.

Finally, the author takes up the effect on contracts of action by the Executive, such as prohibitions of export or import or other official action of an emergency nature. The lawful requisition by the Government of goods will excuse the seller from further performance of his contract. Where, however, the goods are not specific under the contract or the prohibition is only partial, more difficult questions arise. Many of the cases turn upon the construction of particular clauses and it is not easy to extract any general principles.

This book is an able comparison of recent decisions with pre-war opinions of the courts and shows clearly and interestingly the departures from the old rules or principles governing commercial transactions during war. It is a contribution to the legal history of the Great War.

LESTER H. WOOLSEY.

De la Guerre au Droit. By Th. Ruyssen. Paris: Librairie Felix Alcan. 1920. pp. xii, 304.

This book is an unpretentious short study of a great subject. Its author is a well-known professor in the University of Bordeaux and editor of La Paix par le Droit. He has dedicated his "book of peace" to the memory of his "students of philosophy, who died for their country, for the right, and for the liberty of the world." Its readers will find no novel facts or conclusion within its pages. They will find simply a reënforcement of the all-too-familiar facts that past wars were hideous, that the

recent war was more hideous, and that future wars would be most hideous. Upon this fact is based the conclusion that unless the world turns from war to law, its civilization will be submerged by barbarism.

But let it not be hastily assumed that such a book serves but to carry coals to Newcastle. In our time Newcastle has far too little coal. The fact which it illustrates and reënforces is perceived, but not apperceived, by the men of our time; and the conclusion which it iterates and reiterates is accepted by our contemporaries in a half-hearted manner. Seeing, they see not; and professing, they do not really believe. To persuade a warweary world to adopt the pacifism it professes is of like importance to inducing a sin-weary world, "converted" to Christianity, to put its Christian professions into practice.

It cannot be claimed that the author, in the pursuance of this task, is wholly consistent or entirely convincing. The author's arraignment of the World War is a severe one, although, of course, entirely inadequate; and the same may be said of his arraignment of the European diplomacy which caused the war. This diplomacy he shows to have been on all sides monarchical and not democratic, to have suppressed international aspirations for autonomy in the interests of the centralizing and absolutist pretentions of the modern state, to have been so shot through with imperialism that the World War would have come even though German imperialism had not forged to the front, and that another World War will come unless imperialistic rivalries are curbed.

His next thesis is the inadequacy of most of the attempted bases of peace, namely, religion, labor, science and peace societies; but law, international law, remains, and upon this he pins all his hope of future peace. This leads him to discuss the relation of war to law, and the sources of law in social contract and the social conscience. He shows that in primitive societies war is not only the suspension and the negation of law, but that through a long course of development due to economic, psychological, religious and philanthropic factors war has become more and more repressive or punitive of crime. With due credit to Grotius and his followers, our author regards Kant as the real founder of the philosophy of peace, which he based upon the essential conditions of municipal liberty and international arbitration. Modern pacifism, including that of President Wilson, he thinks, has not added a single vital conception to the philosophy of Kant. He admits that the Papacy was of much influence in this development, in promoting the formation of a society of nations subject to a single law; and regards it as fortunate that the decline and fall of the Papacy in international affairs was contemporaneous with the rise in 1815 of an international public law. He admits also that the diplomacy of peace in the intervals of war has played a great rôle. By this development he believes that there has been logically prepared the absorption of war in law.

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